Southeast European Studies in the European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH)

In an attempt to identify and compare Humanities excellence at a supra-national European level, the European Science Foundation launched in 2001 its ERIH initiative. At present it is a reference index of the top journals in 15 areas of the Humanities, across the continent and beyond. Eventually ERIH will be extended to include book-form publications and non-traditional formats. Journals included in the lists are assigned to one of the three categories: A (high-ranking international publications with a very strong reputation among researchers of the field in different countries, regularly cited all over the world), B (standard international publications with a good reputation among researchers of the field in different countries) and C (research journals with an important local / regional significance in Europe, occasionally cited outside the publishing country though their main target group is the domestic academic community). The criteria used are listed at the European Science Foundation website. The initial lists that have been compiled so far are also available at the website.

Southeast European area studies were represented by specialized journals Ethnologia Balkanica. Journal of Southeast European Anthropology (B), Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans (B), Zeitschrift für Balkanologie (B), Balkanistika (Bulgaria)(C) and Balkansko ezikoznanie (Linguistique Balkanique) (C). Other periodicals of interest for scholars working in Southeast European studies, included in ERIH, are Slavic and East European Journal (A), Anthropology of East Europe Review (B) and Slavonic and East European Review (B). The majority of publications dealing with parts of the Southeast European area were assigned category (C). The exception - mysteriously - are hellenic studies which usually got category (B) and exceptionally also (A), for instance Journal of Hellenic Studies (A) and Ta Istorika (A). Not all journals of interest to scholars in Southeast European studies are included in ERIH.